Another inevitable day
by LeDiz
Summary: It's been another stock-standard day, and all Sonic wants to do is sleep. But Tails has been thinking, which is never a good idea.


_**Another inevitable day**_

**DISCLAIMER:** Trying to get back into writing again. Would you believe this originally came from having the line "but what if the world ended, what would you do?" stuck in my head? But uh… yeah. I now quote a song: "There are days to wake up for; there are dreams to be had. What will happen will happen, whether I'm happy or sad."

* * *

"Hey… Sonic?"

It was late. So late it was early. They had been fighting robots all day. Sonic had been caught in no less than three explosions. And they'd had to cross a river. He was in no mood to do anything but sleep.

But despite all his intentions to the contrary, as time went on he found himself being the nice guy more often than not. "Mmph?"

"Are you awake?"

"No," he said bluntly, but Tails apparently ignored him, the sound of squeaking springs telling him the kid was sitting up.

"I've been thinking."

"There's your problem right there," he mumbled, and shuffled further down his pillow.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it. "You know how everyone thought Shadow was you that one time, and you got arrested?"

"Mm."

"I know you fought back, and it turned out okay and all, but… but what if it hadn't?"

He sighed, fighting the urge to groan. This was the kind of conversation he avoided in the middle of the day – he so did not want to have to deal with it now. "Tails, it's late. Go to sleep."

"I can't. I can't stop thinking about it."

Nice guy or not, at three in the morning with singed fur he was allowed to be snarky. "If they'd arrested me and you and Amy hadn't broken me out, then Shadow would've blown up Prison Island and then the planet, Knuckles wouldn't've been able to put the Master Emerald back together, and I would have tried to use my halo as a power ring as the world burned. Okay? Okay. Good night, buddy."

"Sonic, I'm serious."

And he so didn't care.

Except he did. He knew he did. Why did he have to care? Dammit, Tails… "So am I. Can this seriously not wait until tomorrow?"

"I'm not going to sleep anytime soon, if that's what you're asking."

He sighed again and rolled onto his back, forcing his eyes open. When that proved too hard, he let them close again, but lifted his head enough to pull his spines straight before dropping back again, resigning himself to sitting up at least a little bit. "Okay. Okay. What brought this on?"

"You save the world a lot, right?"

He grunted an affirmative.

"What if you didn't? I mean… what if you weren't there, one time? Seriously?"

"Then you or Knuckles would pick up the slack," he said wearily. "Jokes aside, man, the world doesn't actually revolve around me."

Especially not at three in the morning when he'd already done his world saving for the week.

"But what if – I don't… Sonic, sometimes things are bigger than me. And I'm not just talking about size and you know it so don't even try to joke about it. Things like – like Gaia, and – and I could never have taken on the Time Eater, and neither could Knuckles; not even Super Knuckles could've done that."

"You don't know that," he mumbled.

"Yes, I do!"

He sounded so sure of it. Sonic pulled his arm up and slapped his hand over his face, dragging it down as if that might wake him up enough to deal with this. It allowed him to open his eyes at least, and he stared up at the dark ceiling for a few seconds, just listening to Tails' heavy breathing. Poor kid was really freaked out.

"Tails… what brought this on? Neither of us even got hurt today, so what's the deal?" he asked, shifting his head just enough to look at him.

He couldn't see Tails' face, and with the window behind him, his eyes didn't even shine a reflection. He was just a shadow against the moonlight, shaking his head minutely. "Nothing, I… Sonic, I think about this _all_ the time. I know you don't. I know you don't want to think about consequences and what-ifs, but I do. And today was nothing, you know? I bet it won't even get reported on the news, or anything, because it was just us against a robot with flamethrowers, who cares, you know?" He paused, then added, quieter, "But what if… what if today, he'd gotten lucky? If you'd dropped one too many rings, and he actually got you? And then I'd be too upset to fight and… Then… then tomorrow, he'd be able to use that robot on the city. And then it wouldn't be nothing, it would be…"

Sonic sighed yet again, because he couldn't very well tell him he was wrong. Despite all his witty one-liners, casual danger dialogue, and the fact that yeah, he actually did enjoy defying death every day, Sonic was well aware of the possibilities. He absolutely understood that the minor skirmishes he and Eggman had stopped giant killer robots from destroying whole cities. And he knew that every time he destroyed a base or a theme park or even just a mech, it was delaying a bigger, grander attack on a vulnerable target.

But Tails wasn't supposed to think about that stuff. No one was. Everyone was supposed to focus on the witty one-liners, casual danger dialogue, and the fact that he was a cocky smart alec going up against a bumbling harmless villain. He'd worked hard to make sure that was how Tails saw it.

Oh well. Four years had been a good run.

"If I had dropped one too many rings today," he said finally, "if he'd gotten me, then you wouldn't be too upset to fight, Tails. You'd fight for me. And you'd win. And you'd stop him."

"Sonic –"

"I know you would, because you've done it before," he pointed out. "Remember the ARK? Remember, Tails?"

He paused, completely still against the moonlight. He had. He'd blasted Eggman's mech to smithereens, only a minute after he'd thought Sonic was dead and gone.

Sonic had heard the story from Amy, later. He sometimes wondered what Tails would have done if he hadn't distracted the kid afterward, revealing himself to be alive. In those short moments that Tails showed darker sides of himself, those moments that were happening more and more frequently against Eggman, he sometimes wondered if their nemesis would still be alive.

Thankfully, he had spoken up in time. As much as he hated to think it, he knew that if it ever came down to it, Tails probably would cross that line. Because at the end of the day, Tails was a scientist, with a scientist's cold logic. Sonic did what he could to soften it, hoped and prayed that Amy would always be around to be the moral voice, but there was no getting rid of it.

"If I fell against the Time Eater, or Gaia, or any of the big'uns," he continued, "Shadow would pick up the reins. He'd take the Emeralds and he'd go super, and if he faltered, he'd take off the inhibitor rings, and it'd be up to you and Knuckles and Rouge and everyone else to make sure he survived doing that," he said firmly. "And you would do that, because it's needed. You would keep him alive, until you couldn't anymore, and then someone else would do it for you. And sure, things might not be as nice as they are now – might not be as fun. And Knuckles'd need to put in some work and maybe build up the Super Emeralds again, because he'd need to keep Shads in check, but he would. And things'd carry on. They always do."

He waited, but Tails didn't answer, and so Sonic just let out a long breath and shifted back onto his side, snuggling down under the blankets again. "Nothing lasts forever, buddy. Someday, we'll be gone, but then, someday so will Eggman. And when someone else rises up, someone like Eggman Nega, or whatever, someone else'll stand up to him. Like Silver. Heaven help the future," he added with a nasty grin, but he was losing his grip on wakefulness again, so it was muffled. He managed to pull one eye open again though, peeking at Tails' silhouette. "You can worry about it all you like, but it ain't gonna stop it from happening. All you can do is make the most of today. You know?"

When Tails still didn't answer, Sonic gave up on him, and closed his eye again, ready to drop off again. He was almost there when he heard, almost quieter than a whisper, "You really thought about it."

Oh, man, it was so tempting to ignore it. But he couldn't. Tails was clearly still worried, and… "Mm-mm."

"What?"

"I know it's gonna happen," he mumbled. "That doesn't mean I think about it."

"That's still…"

"Tails." He waited until he was sure the kid was listening properly. "Go to sleep."

"But –"

"The sun is gonna rise tomorrow," he said bluntly. "You can sit up and worry about it, or go to sleep, and wake up when it has. You'll feel better for the latter. Trust me on this."

And after a few more long seconds, he heard springs creak, and _finally_, Tails lay back down. Sonic managed to stay awake just long enough to hear his breathing even out into soft snores, before sinking into blissful sleep himself.

They had made it through another day.

* * *

_Trying to get better about posting what drabbles I write, too..._


End file.
